The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

Tag: Meadow Mist Designs

New Quilt Fabric Pull

Hi, I am sharing my start for a new quilt. This is another quilt pattern that I am testing for Meadow Mist Designs. It is a super sized version of her Scrappy Tiles. Cheryl will be sharing more about her new pattern and her test quilt that she is making in the upcoming weeks. The quilt blocks on this new super sized design are so big that you only need 16 of them for a Queen sized quilt. How cool is that ?!! There is lots of room for lots of fun fabric choices.

I am sharing what I have started to pull for fabrics for my version of this quilt. I am trying a scrappy western themed for my daughter who is in college for Veterinary Tech and is possibly interning at a horse ranch this summer.

I have dug way down in to the archives of my fabric stash for some of these fabrics. Lots of old favorites. I have around 27 prints besides the main focus fabric.

This is an Alexander Henry print. I love, love Alexander Henry and he makes some of the best cowboy prints. This one has a copyright of 1997 on it, but I am sure I have not had it that long. Maybe it was reissued?? Is that possible?? This is extra cool with the cowboy’s names under the headshots. Pole Cat, Tex, Slim, El Ray and Luke. Pole Cat is my favorite.

Not sure if the horse print might not also be Alexander Henry? The three centered black star prints are back from my earliest quilting and primitive doll making. The upper most one is a Debbie Mumm fabric. The last fabric is a black blender from my Father Inlaw’s Warm Wishes train logo quilt.

I love all things blue. I have lots of plaids in my stash. (again from primitive dolls) There are two shades of blue blenders in the center, a neat blue sky cloud print and a soft blue pillow ticking stripe.

The main red fabric print is called Barn Dance and it has the neatest black ink drawings of old barns on it. It is a classic Country Threads fabric. Country Threads is from my home state of Iowa, the quilt shop in a chicken coop. A couple more plaids and a red blender that is from my Father inlaw’s Warm Wishes train logo quilt as well.

Here is a green plaid and green ticking stripe that have been around for awhile. I have multiple yards of the blue plaid and think it might end up as backing for this quilt in some fashion. It is made by Marcus Brothers.

This new pattern is fat quarter or 1/4 yard friendly. A single pieced block will measure out to 24 inches square. This will make for lots of room for all sorts of quilting detail. I am highly thinking of stitching out an overall plaid striped design to carry my western themed for this quilt.

I hope to get to start cutting out some of my needed fabrics for this quilt in the upcoming days. This will be after I get further along in my piecing of all the blocks for my pattern test of Plus Plus.

I will be linking up my post with Let’s Bee Social, Crazy Mom’s Quilts, Oh Scrap, and Prairie Sewn Studios Comment Karma linky parties.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Sewing,
Shelley

April 10, 2015
Pattern Testing: Plus Plus WIP

Hi, I have started a new quilt project this week. I am pattern testing a new quilt design for my good friend, Cheryl Brickey who is Meadow Mist Designs. The quilt design is called Plus Plus and the quilt pattern includes two complete designs in one. One version of the quilt can be made scrappy in multiple different solids and the other version is two toned with a single accent plus block. The quilt will be able to made in three sizes from baby, throw to queen size. I am of course working on making up a queen sized quilt (I always test the bigger sized quilts) and I have chosen to make the two toned version of the quilt. Cheryl will be offering this new pattern for sale on her Etsy and Craftsy pattern pages in the upcoming weeks.

(And I texted Cheryl this photo tonight with the caption 9 Blocks out of 121…OMG….) Yes, there are 121 blocks in the queen size version of this quilt. I am going to be making blocks for days… I am using a chocolate brown solid for background and my gold yellow grunge that I used in my Eagles Crossing quilt I made in February for Uncle Max. I had a little over 5 inches to spare from what I had left in yardage of the Grunge.

Cheryl’s pattern always have great instructions and cutting information charts. I am thinking of fussy cutting my one large accent plus from the Amy Butler Modern Midwestern fabric I purchased to use as backing for this quilt. Cheryl sent me a photo of her design a couple months back and I started working on what I thought I might like to make the quilt out of. I had originally thought of using a creamy batik as the pluses but it did not have enough contrast and I did not have enough to make all my blocks. The gold yellow grunge was more than enough fabric, so that appeared to be a sign to use it in this quilt.

Using brown as a background color is a little out of my comfort zone, but I think it should make a striking quilt.

It seems strange for me to look at this photo and think that those strips and squares are going to make 121 blocks, but they will with lots of chain piecing. This is the kind of quilting I like.

I have another quilt project in the works. I am pulling fabrics to test another quilt pattern for Cheryl. I have dug through all my fabric stash and pulled all sorts of fun prints to coordinate with one fun focus print to make a western themed quilt for my daughter. I need quilt batting yet so I can baste my son’s quilt top that I blogged about last week that I pulled from storage.

I will be linking up with various weekly linky parties like Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Let’s Bee Social, Crazy Mom’s Quilts and Prairie Sewn Studios Crafting Comment Karma LinkUp.

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy Sewing,
Shelley

April 9, 2015
Old School Football Addition Quilt: Friday Finish

Hi, Hope everyone is having a lovely Good Friday holiday. I am happy to have a Friday Quilt Finish to share this week.

I have completed my Old School Football version of Adding Up Nicely by Meadow Mist Designs. I have now made four different versions of Adding Up Nicely, but actually 5 quilts since there was the twin Scooby Doo versions for my grandsons. I think I have throughly tested out this pattern now. 🙂

I really love the pop of orange with the bright blue. So cheery. It’s great to be able to put together a neat quilt with some fabric stash that has spent years waiting for the right project. I did diagonal cross hatch quilting through the orange pluses and used the same orange fabric for binding.

The weather did not cooperate with me today for some nice outdoor photos. The sun has come out but it is too windy. I live on a farm and with it being Spring finally, there is work to get the fields ready to plant. They are hauling manure to the fields and my gates that I have used for photo shoots are wired open and it’s not a pretty picture at the moment. I need to work on finding some way to hang up my quilts here in the house, for when indoor photos have to be taken.

Mr. Casey’s name had been centered in the back of the quilt. I had even matched up the seam of the orange strips with the center of the letter S. Not sure how it got moved, but at least it is still straight across the back. Sometime simple cross hatching quilting is the best way to not distract from the designs of quilt. And it didn’t hurt that I was easing back in to quilting after being off for a couple weeks. I needed a fast finish. Hopefully my nephew and his new son will get many years of use out of this quilt.

I will be linking up my Friday finish with Crazy Mom’s Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, TGIFF and Prairie Sewn Studios Crafting Comment Karma LinkUp.

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter holiday!

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my blog.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

April 3, 2015
My Fresh Sewing Day for April

Hi, My name is Shelley and I have not quilted or sewed in what is 18 days. Just in case anyone thought I fell off the other side of the earth, I pulled my neck wrong doing my last couple quilting projects and suffered from pain in my shoulder and down my arm into my hand. I guess I pushed it too hard. I only planned to take a couple days off and start back on some projects when I was feeling better, but I discovered I suffered from some burn out or loss of my “sew-jo”. My sewing machine may have taken a rest while I continued to look over fabrics and quilt designs planning new projects.

It is the First of April and time to do a monthly review. I finished quilting my Dr. Seuss scrappy baby quilt. I plan on giving it to our niece and her new baby this Easter weekend, when we get to meet our new nephew for first time. I started a new quilt for another little nephew who just recently turned 1. That quilt was made with Meadow Mist Design’s Adding Up Nicely and used an old school NFL team jerseys fabric that I had in my stash since 1999.

For new sewing I just finished piecing a back for the Old School Team Jersey quilt. I appliqued our nephew’s name on the back.

I really like using Lite Steam-A-Seam 2’s fusible webbing product. It stays flexible and is light weight, and the double sided sticky tape feature that allows you to hand press down your design before iron pressing it to make it permanent is so nice.

Here is a reminder of what the quilt top looks like. I got it basted together today and it is ready to be quilted. I have been bummed out that I could not find back the embroidery stitchery of the Chicago Bears’ version of the Lord’s Prayer that my Mom did for my Chicago Bears’ quilt I made back in 2007. In the last 18 days, I have been through my fabric bins many times and can not locate it back.

Here is something that I did find stashed away in my fabric bins. This is probably one of my oldest quilt flimsies. This is made for our son.

The Fan-tastic Sport Quilts book has a copyright of 1996. I think it was out on the market for a couple years when I purchased it, so I would estimate I made the quilt in 1998. I remember we jointly decided to not applique the various sports balls on the quilt. After I finish quilting my nephew’s quilt, I plan to baste this quilt top and finally get it quilted and presented to our son. He has moved around alot over the recent years and could use his own quilt.

In the upcoming month, I plan to go through my fabric bins start reorganizing all my fabrics and cutting some of my own pre-cuts so I can figure out how to use more of my fabric stash in my future quilt projects.

I am linking up with Lily’s Quilts Fresh Sewing Day, WIP Wednesday and other weekly linky parties.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you will come back to see what new projects I have planned in the works.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

April 1, 2015
Old School NFL Team Jersey Baby Quilt Flimsy

Hi, I am sharing my Friday quilt top finish for the week. It is a regular size Adding Up Nicely designed by Meadow Mist Designs. This is the lap throw size of 50 by 68 inches.

This quilt will be for my little nephew Casey who turned 1 year old yesterday. I used to make his Dad and my son clothes when they were little. I made quilted baseball jackets, where I quilted up fabric yardage and then cut out the necessary pattern pieces using a fun themed fabric for main part of the jacket and a solid color as the sleeves. When my nephew wore his Cowboys (on horses fabric) jacket I made him, he was almost attacked by a lady at McDonald’s asking where he got the jacket as she had just spent hundreds of dollars decorating her son’s bedroom in the western Cowboy’s theme. My sister inlaw told her that his talented Aunt made it for him and that she was not likely to find another.

The fabric for this quilt is an Old School NFL football jerseys and uniforms themed fabric. My nephew is a big Chicago Bears fan. This fabric has a copyright from 1996 on the selvage. I know it is saved from when I still made my son and nephew clothes. I have pulled this fabric out a few times over the years to maybe use it, but put it back. I thought this was the perfect time now that my nephew has his own son. It’s because of his love of the Chicago Bears I pulled a mottled orange cotton fabric from my stash. The white background is the same fabric from my Uncle Max’s Eagle Landing quilt top I finished a couple weeks ago.

I am still working on what I want to do for the back of the quilt. I have one special touch that will tie a connection to my Mom, who passed away in 2013. Mom helped me with my special Chicago Bears quilt project that I presented to a friend who was a retiring Marine. She machine embroidered a fabric patch that was a kitschy version of the Lord’s Prayer written for the Chicago Bears and their run for the Super Bowl in 2007. She gave me her sample of it and I found it in my stash of fabrics last week. I was pulling fabrics for another quilt idea when I found this Old School NFL fabric. I had the embroidered quilt block but put it back as I did not have a use for it currently. Now a week later, and frantically searching for it for two days I still can not find it. I had wanted to do a crazy attempt to finish this quilt top today, but since I could not find that sample I have decided to take a step back and see if it will show itself. I think it would be a true keepsake to my Nephew to have something his Grandmother made, since she did not meet his son.

What I did find what some actual Chicago Bears licensed fabric left over from Sgt. Walker’s Bears quilt made in 2007. So I traced them on to fusible web and have them ready to iron on my quilt back and machine applique them. To come up with the most fitting back for this special quilt is taking longer than I hoped, but I am sure it will be treasured by my nephew and his son.

I had some nice comments about my photos of my Mr. Bird metal sculpture that my husband made me in my last blog post. For fun, I thought I would share what Mr. Bird looks like without his quilted wings and he has a mate, Mrs. Bird. She is actually taller than Mr. Bird and lives across the drive in a raised flower bed, which is now just full of grass.

(Mr. Bird)

(Mrs. Bird, has longer legs, different feet and a different shovel as her body base.)

I will linking up my flimsy finish with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday?,TGIFF linky party and also And Sew We Craft Together Week 12.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are celebrating our 28th wedding anniversary today. I had a good evening with my husband and daughter eating out for supper with my Dad and various aunts and uncles. Dad’s birthday is St. Patrick’s Day so it was a double celebration.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

March 13, 2015
Max’s Eagles Landing Quilt Finish

Hi, I would like to share my latest quilt finish. This is my Eagles Landing quilt made from the Adding Up Nicely pattern by Meadow Mist Designs. This is to be a gift for our Uncle Max whose birthday was this week. This is a pretty fast quilt finish especially since I only started it on Tuesday morning. I spent a day and half pondering my possible backing and quilting choices.

I quilted in all the gold areas with a yellow/gold thread. It makes the white pluses and eagle print blocks pop out. I really like how the quilting turned out. My machine was nice to me this time and kept a consistent nice even quilting stitch. There was lots of stopping and turning using a domestic machine that only has a 7 inch throat opening, which is actually only 5 inches at the top. As long as I told myself it’s a walking foot and not a running foot, it was a smooth operation.

We had 5 inches of snow this week, so it makes a nice background.

For the backing, I used a single piece (90 inches worth) of a patriotic vintage eagle print fabric called Williamsburg by American Heritage. It is the prettiest denim shade in a wood print for the background. I used a brown version of this same print for the backing of the patriotic quilt I made for the Wounded Warrior Foundation auction. I have another 3 yard piece of this fabric that can be another backing for a quilt.

I am linking up this quilt finish with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop ? and other weekend quilt linky parties.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

February 28, 2015
Eagle Plus B’Day Flimsy

Hi, I am sharing today what is probably one of my fastest quilt top finishes. This is made with Adding Up Nicely by Meadow Mist Designs and the blocks are super-sized in the same fashion as my Scooby Doo Crossing quilts . I started cutting the fabrics on Tuesday morning and had the entire flimy put together by the time supper was on the table except for the last three rows. I finished attaching the last three rows this morning.

I am making this a gift for our Uncle whose birthday is today. He is a Viet Nam Veteran. His family farm is a prime location for bird watching and has regular visitors of all sorts of wildlife including eagles. A family joke would have been to make this out of Turkey Vulture fabrics as he used to be visited by numerous buzzards at one time and they would hang out on the eaves of his barn. Eagles are a more beautiful bird of course, and fitting as a patriotic theme as well. I am looking to piece a stars and stripes backing to make the quilt even more patriotic. I am so happy that all my intersections joined up nicely on this quilt top. Yeah, for pressing the seams in opposite directions in a consistent manner!

I purchased the eagle print from Hancock Fabrics last year. It was an end of the bolt (2 yds.) and I thought I could come up with a good use for it in the near future. Nice prints like this are few and far between. The gold or mustard is a JoAnn Fabric’s exclusive. I just found it on Saturday and with a 50% off coupon, I purchased all that was left on bolt (over 6 yds.). I will be able to use it in a quilt I have in the works in the near future. And the white fabric has diamonds or triangles in a slight cream color on it and this fabric has been in my stash since maybe 2001. I know I have used it in other quilts and still have quite a bit left, maybe it can go into a low volume quilt project in the future.

I hope that I am able to finish up this quilt yet this week, and get it delivered. I am looking to finish quilting my little Dr. Seuss baby quilt this weekend in time for Dr. Seuss’ birthday on March 2nd. I intended to give it to my SIL, but we also have a friend who is going to be a Grandmother for the first time soon, and she is the biggest Dr. Seuss fan, so it might be fitting to gift it to her. Our Niece gave birth to a son this morning, and he was given the name Connor Earl. I have been looking at possible Irish Chain quilt variations as a possible quilt for him, in honor of his Irish family backgrounds.

I am linking up this quilt top finish with WIP Wednesday and various mid week linky parties.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

February 25, 2015
Winner of Looking Glass Pattern Contest

Good Morning!

We have a winner for the Looking Glass Pattern Giveaway.

The winning comment by Sarah Craig was drawn:

I always make my granddaughters a new quilt each year for Christmas, and so I am working on those two quilts right now. Hopefully they’ll both be finished in time to go under the tree!!

Whoop whoop for a lovely finish – Comma is one of my favorite lines!

I will be emailing Sarah with her copy of Looking Glass this morning.

Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway!

December 6, 2014
Broken Frames Quilt Completed

Heads Up!

Make sure you come back to my blog on Monday, the 8th as I will be participating in Sew Mama Sews Giveaway Day. I will be giving away a layer cake of Bali Batiks (so pretty that I had to get one for myself) and a set of 3 of Meadow Mist Designs quilt patterns that will get you started on making your own lovely batik quilt.

A winner for the Looking Glass pattern contest was chosen this morning. Sarah Craig

Hi, I would like to share today my completed Broken Frames quilt. Broken Frames is a pattern by Meadow Mist Designs and it was created with 39 different black and white prints. Most of them were pulled from the black and white prints that were in the Moda Shades of Black fabric line. I added other black and white prints that I found on Etsy and Ebay. A turquoise solid for sashing is an amazing pop of color against all the black and white prints.

I made the quilt top earlier this fall and started quilting it last week and finished binding the quilt Thanksgiving morning. I presented the finished quilt as a gift to my Aunt Bobbie yet Thanksgiving day. She simply loved it, which is the best outcome to creating something for someone when you are not sure if they will like it. My Aunt was so excited to show everyone her quilt. I ended up sending her photos off my phone so she did not have to lug the quilt with her everywhere she went. This is all I hope for when I create my quilts and give them as gifts, that they are well liked and well used.

We had fresh snow for Thanksgiving and lovely sunshine. It was quite chilly trying to take photos outdoors.

A closer view of some of the wonderful black and white prints.

Here is the view of the pieced backing. I didn’t realize how see through my black solid was.

I really like how this quilt turned out. I would say it has to be one of my new favorite finishes. I like the off center striping on the back. For something that I just kind of threw together, I really like the end result. I kept the quilting to a minimum, as I worried about pulling the sashing off kilter even with my walking foot. It did quilt nicely over all the intersections.

Thank you for checking out my latest quilt finish. I will be linking up with various linky parties this week. It’s always fun to share and see what the other quilters are completing this week as well.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

December 3, 2014
Looking Glass Quilt Blog Hop and Pattern Giveaway

Hi, My name is Shelley and welcome to my blog, The Carpenter’s Daughter who Quilts. Today, I am the last stop on the Looking Glass Quilt Blog Hop. I hope all my US Readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.

I was asked by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs if I would like to pattern test her latest quilt design, Looking Glass. I have developed a friendship with Cheryl for over a year now, since purchasing some of her other wonderful quilt patterns. Cheryl is the one who suggested to me to start this blog. I jumped at the chance to be able to play with her new design, Looking Glass. It’s a neat design that can be made from charm squares or layer cake squares, or if you want to cut your own squares from fat quarters. It can be made in all sizes from baby to queen size. The pattern goes together so nicely. It is very easy to assemble with chain piecing. Cheryl shows how to press your seams on your blocks and rows and everything joins up nicely in the end. I love that Cheryl’s patterns have numerous charts and tells you how many strips etc for each size of quilt you choose to make and the directions are in one spot so you can easily keep track of what you need to cut out.

I chose to make the Queen size version of Looking Glass. It ends up being 90 inches by 89.5 inches. I chose to make my top out of the Zen Chic Comma line of fabrics. I love the bold graphics and typography. These are colors that are not usually in my comfort zone. I am usually stuck in a “blue” color scheme. I used Zen Chic’s Barcelona line last year to make my Dad a quilt using Cheryl’s Adding Up Nicely pattern. The Zen Chic fabrics just have such a nice feel to them. It was a joy to sew with them. I had 5 of the Comma charm packs in my fabric stash saved for making a quilt for our bed and when I decided I wanted to use them to make Looking Glass, I had to do a major hunt online to still be able to find additional charm packs. There was not much of the Comma line available anymore.

My quilt top is not quilted yet. With it being a queen size, it will be one of the larger quilts that I have had to quilt. I think I am leaning towards using rows of a curvy, scalloped scrolling pattern (if that makes sense.) I unfortunately do not FMQ yet, but will be working on that in the new year. Since this will be one of the first quilts I have saved in years to go on our own bed, I have time to make sure I pick out the right way to quilt my top.

I do have a pieced back made for this quilt all ready. Cheryl’s instructions leave a few charm squares for you to add to your backing in a fun way, if you choose.

I added gray, black and white solids to make large color bands. Here is a close up of my pieced charm square center.

Now that I have shown you my version of Looking Glass, Cheryl has given all of us pattern testers a copy of Looking Glass to giveaway to one of our blog readers.

To enter the pattern giveaway, please leave a comment telling me an item that you are making for a Christmas gift this year. If you are a no-blogger, be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you.

For a second chance entry, let me know if you are a new or old follower of my blog. On the front page of my blog, there are links to email, Bloglovin, and Facebook. Let me know which way you are following in a second comment.

The giveaway will run til Friday, December 5th. If you can not wait to test your chances of winning, you can purchase the pattern on Craftsy or Etsy on sale for $5.50 til December 6th. If the chosen winner by chance has all ready purchased the pattern, their purchase price will be refunded to them.

And if you want additional chances to win check out the other stops on the hop.

Friday Nov. 21st: Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs
Saturday Nov. 22nd: Lin @ Lin’s Quilts
Sunday Nov. 23rd: Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts
Monday Nov. 24th: Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty
Monday Nov. 24th: Anna @ Fresh Dew Drops
Tuesday Nov. 25th: Chelsea @ Patch the Giraffe
Wednesday Nov. 26th: Shauna @ Shauna’s World
Friday Nov. 28th: Shelley @ The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts (You are here.)

Thanks for stopping by and good luck on winning a copy of Looking Glass.

A winner has been chosen: Sarah Craig.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

November 27, 2014